Commerce and digital marketing have converged, powered by consumer adoption of online shopping and groceries, as well as by retailers pushing more data and marketing to the web. This trend has created a big opportunity – a need, really – for agency services to support this new world of commerce media. This award recognizes the best agencies, consultants and marketing supporters enabling brands and retailers to take advantage of new commerce trends and delight their customers wherever they may be, from a physical store location to an app or website.

Navigating the constantly changing world of programmatic requires sharp minds. This award recognizes firms that guide clients deftly through a complex landscape and help them determine how to best apply programmatic to achieve their business goals by, for example, better leveraging agency partnerships, taking programmatic in-house, education or building custom products.

Data has always been the lifeblood of media investments, but with the rise of digital – and the growing importance of first-party data – having a data strategy is critical. Agencies nominated for this award show a deft ability to not only use data to improve clients' media investments, but to know which pieces of data can make media dollars work harder.

Agencies must have a deep understanding of platforms and how to best leverage them for their clients' specific needs. Agencies nominated for this award have either demonstrated exceptional understanding and ability to work with top platforms in the space or built technology in-house that solves for identity, buying, measurement and beyond.

This category recognizes nominees that have identified, targeted and purchased an audience on linear TV or over-the-top, including connected TV campaigns. Innovation in targeting, planning, interactivity or measurement are all considered.

This category recognizes campaigns that applied programmatic concepts and techniques in unique ways, from their planning to execution, use of identity and/or contextual signals, measurement optimization.

From digital signage to location data, out-of-home marketing offers new ways of customization and measurement. The Best Programmatic Out-Of-Home Activation will recognize a campaign or strategy that exemplifies the success and innovation in OOH marketing.

From podcasts to voice-activated devices, audio is rapidly becoming a crucial medium to engage with consumers. This award recognizes companies that have innovated their approach to audio, from buying to measurement to ad formats. Award is open to audio publishers and podcasters, marketers and audio ad tech companies.

This category draws from all award entries submitted and recognizes excellence in its service and contribution to stakeholders, such as marketers or consumers, and the industry at large. Entries will be judged on how clearly they align a product, service or campaign with proven results, innovation and creativity.  *Only winning entries from other categories will qualify for entry into this overall excellence award. 

Hiring. Supply chain initiatives. Media planning. In both internal and external projects, companies are putting diversity, equity and inclusion principles at the forefront of their decision-making. This award recognizes companies who are putting resources behind creating an equitable workplace and world.

This category recognizes digital advertising and marketing professionals who typify visionary leadership by effectively guiding their organization or business unit to meet business goals while advancing innovation and inspiring their teams.

This category recognizes emerging leaders in digital advertising and marketing, with a focus on mid-level professionals under 40 years of age who already have demonstrated a track record of achievement, exceptional growth and huge potential to disrupt the industry.

Sustainability is a priority for many industries, including digital advertising. From processing power to environmental impact, sustainable advertising is key as the industry moves forward. This award recognizes a company, project or partnership that is putting in the effort to reduce carbon emissions and create a more sustainable future.

Some marketers have reams of data that needs organization, while others must undertake projects to start collecting data and tap into that data to better understand their customers and how to reach them online and offline. Meanwhile, the loss of signal is prompting new measurement undertakings. This award will recognize marketers who are making progress in how they’re using data and transforming their measurement approaches, judging both work that’s undertaken and the larger roadmap they’ve created for themselves.

Call it "in-housing" or "hands on." This award category recognizes advertisers who have built media-buying and advertising capabilities in-house. Winning entries will excel in one or more of these areas: data strategy, technology integration, supply relationships, creativity, measurement and continuous improvement.

Data broadens how publishers can understand their audience. And it opens up new opportunities to monetize their readership and improve the experience for their readers. Publishers in this category are using their first-party data in order to do things like generate insights for clients, target campaigns or measure results. This award recognizes both progress and overall excellence in a publisher first-party data platform.

Whether it’s a new integration or going deeper with an existing technology, leading publishers have found ways to make the tech work for them to boost results. This category recognizes publishers who have built, partnered or bought technology that is driving notable business success or audience growth.

The industry's most innovative publishers have set a high bar for their use of technology, data, platforms, internal organization and partnerships to position themselves for success. This category recognizes publishers who have found new and creative ways to reach and monetize their audiences.

The human touch still matters, especially as technological complexity increases. The top platforms in this category help their customers resolve issues and succeed with outstanding personalized service.

Publishers are creating innovative, data-driven ways to connect their audiences with retail marketers to sell everything from groceries to clothes to furniture. Data and ad tech companies have built platforms and devised methods to improve online advertising by connecting mobile or web impressions to in-store sales and business results that actually matter. Retailers themselves have also built programmatic technology to better use their data to target or measure campaigns. This award recognizes companies building commerce media technologies that improve the shopper experience and help retailers and brands seize new revenue opportunities.

This award recognizes the leading companies that bring data to bear in programmatic media and beyond, from CDPs to DMPs to identity companies.

This award recognizes outstanding demand-side technology companies that consistently meet the highest standards and show leadership and innovation in areas like identity, targeting, measurement, partnerships, client services and marketplace quality.

This award recognizes the best and most innovative of the new wave of technology firms. Applicants should have been founded less than three years ago.  

Signal loss is one of the biggest challenges facing the online advertising industry today – but it’s also a massive opportunity for smart, future-minded companies that help brands navigate the shifting landscape. This award recognizes identity-focused technology companies that enable brands, agencies and publishers to remain simultaneously effective and ethical.

This award recognizes the best measurement and analytics that takes into account the evolving identity landscape as well as the need to deliver meaningful insights.

The advertising industry is being forced to roll with a lot of changes at once, from Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency framework and the imminent phaseout of third-party cookies on Chrome to privacy regulations coming into effect around the world. But brands still need to reach people, albeit in a privacy-safe way. This category recognizes companies that help the ad ecosystem chart a course toward a more privacy-centric web, including privacy tech vendors and companies (brands and publishers) that have effectively woven privacy principles into their own ad tech product or marketing initiatives.

Through technology, publishers can solve many problems: understand their readers better, meet advertisers’ KPIs, drive subscriptions or increase their bottom line. This category recognizes vendors that excel in helping publishers build stronger and more sustainable businesses. 

This award recognizes innovative and powerful publisher-facing tech in the video space. The category encompasses a wide variety of technology capabilities, from targeting to measurement to yield management and ad delivery.

From streaming to linear to CTV, more data is being introduced into video buys. Measurement is evolving, the big screen is being infused with identity and cutting-edge companies are emerging to meet the growing appetite for advanced television advertising solutions.